The Housing 1,000 SV kicked off its registry of the homeless in Santa Clara County Monday and Tuesday.

Today, those efforts continue throughout the county.

But while the early morning outreach to this vulnerable segment of society might resemble the bi-annual homeless census required by the federal government, officals say it’s more about faces than numbers.

“The housing 1,000 SV campaign is different because rather than talking about the numbers, we are trying to create a registry to identify individuals and match them with services,” says Ky Le, Santa Clara County director of homeless systems.

Participants survey every individual spoken to. The survey has two purposes: to identify and prioritize services based on their health and then, within Santa Clara County, house 1,000 chronic homeless people within the next two years, Le says.

“Our local chapter is part of a larger effort sponsored by Common Ground,” he says. “We use this information while maintaining all their privacy rights to identify homeless individuals and see how they are actually impacting, not only county services, but community services as well.”